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- Kansas City Star, Missouri, 23 August 2015
Anne Ewing Simrall
Anne Ewing Simrall was born March 19, 1918, to Thomas Smith Simrall, Jr. and Edna Chalmers Williams Simrall in Boonville, Mo. She grew up at 711 East Morgan in a family home built by her great, great grandfather shortly after Missouri became a state. She spent summers in Michigan with cousins in Grand Rapids and at Camp Kechuwa on the UP. She attended Hollins College for one year before coming back to the University of Missouri, where she was a Kappa Kappa Gamma and the third generation to graduate. Her uncle, Walter Williams, was President of the University and founder of the Journalism School. After graduation in 1940, and a road trip through the west in a red convertible with her cousin, Hulda Rhodes, she became a Braniff stewardess in Dallas, Texas. She left Braniff to marry Jack Busiek of Kansas City, Mo., on Oct. 4, 1941, whom she had known at Kemper Military Academy and the University. Jack was in the Army Air Corps and the newly- weds left for Phoenix, Ariz., after Pearl Harbor in December. Tragically, Jack was killed testing aircraft in Phoenix in August, 1942. Anne, with Jack's body, was accompanied by another young pilot, Barry Goldwater, on the train back to Kansas City. She and Goldwater stayed in touch through the years. In January, 1943, she began teaching an "airline hostess" class at Stephens College in Columbia. She left in June to join the American Red Cross overseas. On to Fascist Italy, where she helped wounded troops and Italian prisoners for the next 18 months. She returned to Columbia, to teach again at Stephens and met Andrew Jackson Bass, Jr. Anne and Andy married on Aug. 16, 1945. Together, they had three children and lived in Columbia their whole marriage. She and Andy divorced in 1991 and she moved to Maine, where she built a home outside Portland, spending the winter months in Florida. In 2000, she moved to Amelia Island, Fla., to the Osprey Village, a new retirement concept. She owned one of the first homes built there. She enjoyed the lifestyle and camaraderie of friends and family, and remained independent until her death at 97 on July 19, 2015. "Queen" instilled in her grandchildren the importance of family, optimism and her love of travel. Beyond trips with the whole family, the Queen took each of them on several adventures, some with Andy and some without. She loved to remember Christmas, holidays and birthdays by where she was, with pictures and letters in her scrapbooks! Anne is survived by her children, Mary Dorsey Bass Wanless of Topeka, Kan., Drew Jackson Bass Stull of Dallas, Texas, Thomas Simrall Bass of Columbia, Mo.; seven grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. The private interment of her ashes will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Walnut Grove Cemetery in Boonville.
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Bassett Family Association Database
1918 - 2015 (97 years)